This application is being submitted to support the recruitment, retention, and advancement of outstanding candidates for the tenure-track Assistant Professor position available in our multidisciplinary research group. Our goal is to use the awarded funds to empower the newly appointed faculty to achieve their full career potential by providing the infrastructure, supportive environment, and resources that promote and ensure the academic success of the faculty and continue the tradition of excellence at the University of Pittsburgh. This will in turn contribute to the discovery, dissemination, and translation of biomedical knowledge and promote the training and success of the next generation of physician scientists. We are uniquely poised to foster the career development of junior faculty through an existing multidisciplinary network of investigators and ongoing collaborations that bridge disciplines, centers, departments, and institutions. The faculty candidate will be supported to establish an independent research program in the vascular biology of systemic-sclerosis (SSc) and autoimmune disease. Our multi-disciplinary team brings together unique expertise in the study of translational functional genomics, endothelial dysfunction, proliferative and fibrotic cell biology, inflammation, nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species biology, and pulmonary arterial hypertension. The Hemostasis Vascular Biology Research Institute, the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology and the Scleroderma Center will jointly provide the resources and support to foster the development of a faculty at the Assistant Professor level. The strength of our program resides in the balance between basic and clinical research and robust programs led by experienced investigators with longstanding proven records in mentoring the next generation of investigators.